SIZZLE 3 

WAR M UP YOUR WINTER WITH MUSIC, ARTS & BOWLS
avant-garde meets folk meets electronica meets jazz meets performance art meets dance
... coming to your local bowlo ....

Sizzle was conceived by Ensemble Offspring as an alternative musical event for Sydney in winter - a way of getting contemporary classical music off the podium and into people's Sunday arvos. A relaxed and casual affair including food, drinks and bowls, each afternoon is curated by an Ensemble Offspring member, reflecting their unique personal tastes and varied collaborative project. Not your run-of-the-mill classical violinist, Veronique Serret curates our August Sizzle at Camperdown Bowling Club featuring The Noise Ensemble, Acutal Russian Brides, some fluxus inspired perplexity, a visual artist and DJ as well as yours truly, Ensemble Offspring.

Set 1

Barbeler - Confession 2 (Piccolo Solo - Lamorna Nightinale)

Scelsi - Ko Lho (Jason Noble & Lamorna Nightingale)

The Noise Trio (Veronique Serret, James Eccles, Ollie Miller)

INTERVAL - BOWLING

Set 2

Violin Folk Tune - Veronique Serret

Bran Tart Merger (Geoff Gartner & Adrian Bertram)

Actual Russian Brides (Elle Knox)

INTERVAL - BINGO

Set 3

Keyboard solo - Zubin Kanga

Kay/Reaston/Cameron Effect

Sunday 1st August 4-7pm
Camperdown Bowling Club
Tix at the door $15/$10

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SIZZLE 2 

WARM UP YOUR WINTER WITH MUSIC, ARTS & BOWLS
avant-garde meets folk meets electronica meets jazz meets performance art meets dance
... coming to your local bowlo

The first Sizzle at Waverley Bowling Club was curated by our clarinetist Jason Noble and it was a hug e hit. Some highlights were the line up of 11 clarinettists performing Steve Reich’s classic “New York Counterpoint” live (stunning) and dancers Kip and Linda Gamblin dancing and playing guitar simultaneously!  

Percussionist and drummer Bree van Reyk curates our July Sizzle at Petersham with a presentation of John Cage’s Lecture on Commitment, featuring a collection of Sydney musicians and visual/performance artists... Agatha Gothe-Snape, Holly Throsby, Timothy Constable, Brian Fuata, Bob 

Scott, Ensemble Offspring and more. Includes massed minimal music by Louis Andriessen, Terry Riley and Mr Cage himself.

 

NB: come early to squeeze in a sizzling round of lawn bowls!

Sunday 18th July 4-7pm
Petersham Bowling Club

77 BRIGHTON ST PETERSHAM
(just a short walk from Petersham station)

Concept and Music Direction Bree van Reyk

Art Direction by Agatha Gothe-Snape

Program: 

Set 1

Zoe and the Buttercups (Zoe, Evan, Aaron)

Workers Union by Louis Andriessen performed by Ensemble Offspring (Jason, Lamorna, Claire, Zubin, Bree), Zoe, Evan, Lucian, Danny

Set 2

Duet with Blindfold by Bree van Reyk performed by Timothy & Bree

Holly Throsby (with Jens and Bree special guests)

Newport Mix by John Cage performed by Bob Scott

Set 3

In C by Terry Riley performed by Ensemble Offspring, Zoe, Evan, Lucian, Danny, Holly, Jens, Arne, Stefan, Julia

Sunday 18th July 4-7pm
Petersham Bowling Club
Tix at the door $15/$10

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What is world music?
Lecture and concert at the Con Friday 23 April.

6 pm. Ensemble Offspring and Riley Lee (Shakuhachi) ‘The Oriental Other', Recital Hall West.

Ensemble Offspring will present three contemporary works that explore Western art music's representation of its Oriental other: based primarily in Europe, but of partial Chinese heritage, Tona Scherchen-Hsiao's suite, Yi, is one of her only works to tangibly recall the folk music of her years spent with her mother in China; written especially for Ensemble Offspring, Bruce Crossman's Not Broken Bruised Reed aspires to capture the artistry of calligraphic gesture in sound; the University's own Anne Boyd freely acknowledges her debt to Asia in her conception of music as meditation.

Ensemble Offspring
Claire Edwardes, percussion; Timothy Constable, percussion; Anna McMichael, violin; Zubin Kanga, piano

4pm. Lecture: ‘What is world music: Whose world and whose music?'
Lecture by Keith Howard, Associate Dean, Research, and Professor, at the SCM.

Music is a species-specific attribute of man: every human group has music. But,with increasing globalization, it is clear that many of the musics of the world are struggling for survival. Today, the genre of ‘world music' markets indigenous traditions less than mediated mixes of the exotic and the familiar that are commodified and commercialised by a multi-national industry. Whose music is this?

Keith Howard has written or edited 16 books and more than 100 articles on music and culture in Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Siberia and Zimbabwe.

New Ensemble Offspring CD Springtime

Ensemble Offspring's dedication to the presentation of new work is summed up in their latest release Springtime. The all-premiere collection of works were commissioned by or written for Ensemble Offspring and sparkles with the energy and vitality that characterise its live performances.

The CD's namesake, Springtime, was written by renowned English composer Michael Finnissy as a wedding gift for Ensemble Offspring's co-founder Matthew Shlomowitz whose work Slow Flipping Harmony is also featured on the disc. Finnissy and Shlomowitz's work, together with Same Steps by Artistic Director Damien Ricketson, reappraise the tradition of indeterminacy in music whilst new commissions from esteemed Australian composers Bozidar Kos and Michael Smetanin explore facets of spectral harmony. Together the works represent a rich and intricate world of microtonal textures and spacious forms.

Prominent musicologist Richard Toop, in his forward to the disc comments:
"In musical terms, it's hard to utter the word ‘Spring' without thinking of Vivaldi's ‘Four Seasons'. But these well-known works are just the first four parts of a bigger collection entitled ‘The Contest between Harmony and Invention'; and if one can reinterpret that, at the start of the 21st Century, as a mutually supportive contest between texture (harmony) and figuration (invention), then it could well serve as a motto for the works gathered on this disc which, in terms of both composition and performance, seems to represent a very welcome new Australian Spring."

Repertoire
• Michael Finnissy Springtime (2003)
• Damien Ricketson Same Steps (2008)
• Christopher Tonkin Widdop Phaeton Relic (2009)
• Michael Smetanin Swell (2008)
• Matthew Shlomowitz Slow Flipping Harmony (2006)
• Bozidar Kos Fatamorgana (2004)

(purchase the disc directly from Curious Noise using paypal)

Fractured Again at Sydney Festival 2010

We are very excited to announce that this summer will see Ensemble Offspring present our first performance as part of the iconic Sydney Festival. Conceived by Artistic Director, Damien Ricketson, Fractured Again is a fragile and exotic work on the theme of glass that will transform the magnificent Great Hall at The University of Sydney into a unique sonic and visual environment.

Fractured Again features a glass harmonica, a rare musical instrument that fell from favour because it was thought to trigger insanity as well as unique glass instruments designed by Melbourne-based installation artist Elaine Miles. Elaine's glass panels are simultaneously projection surfaces onto which interactive video by Andrew Wholley fuses with electronic music by Pimmon and live clarinet, violin, percussion to create a striking multifaceted performance event.

If you are looking for an original Xmas gift this year, why not treat your friends to an out of the ordinary and memorable experience. Tix are only $30

Thu, Fri, Sat 21-23 January @ 8.30pm

The Great Hall, University of Sydney

Media stories

Exclusive glass harmonica to appear in Great Hall
Richard North, University of Sydney News
Article featuring the glass harmonica

Sydney Festival Preview: A Fine Catch in a Net Cast Wide [the RealTime selection: Sydney Festival 2010]
Keith Gallasch, RealTime Arts
Article providing overview of 2010 festival highlights

Prize flight: a composer's big idea hits the runway
Adam Fulton, Sydney Morning Herlald
Article about the Ian Potter Foundation and their funding of Fractured Again

Fragile ensemble needs to be handled with care
Sydney Morning Herald, 18 Jan, 2010
Article with background information about Fractured Again

Instrument set to be clear favourite
Adam Fulton, Sydney Morning Herald, 18 Jan, 2010
Article about the glassharmoninca

 Introducing 2010

So what can you expect from us in 2010? Come and join us as we embrace the new decade with another program of music that we hope will jolt your senses and inspire your mind.

2010 will kick-off with Fractured Again in the Sydney Festival. Fractured Again is a fragile work on the theme of glass that will transform the magnificent Great Hall at The University of Sydney into a unique visual and sonic environment. Conceived by Damien Ricketson the work is a multi-faceted performance experience featuring the rare and angelic-sounding glass harmonica and huge glass panels that illuminate when performed.

As Ensemble-in-Residence at the international ISCM/World New Music Days hear three programs of entirely new music. Our ‘Wealth of Sound' program introduces the latest interactions between acoustic and electronic music, ‘Young and Restless' reveals the most recent international trends with a concert devoted to the under 35s and ‘The World in Sydney' brings together the best from every corner of the globe.

Warm up your winter with Sizzle as we take over three inner-city bowling clubs in a series of cross-genre events. Curated by EO members, Jason Noble, Bree van Reyk and Veronique Serret, hear a startling collation of performances from challenging classical repertoire to popular music to physical theatre with plenty of surprising turns in between.

The year will end with Sounds Absurd where we develop the theatricality of music to the extreme. Presented at the cavernous Carriageworks and featuring the instrumental theatre works of Mauricio Kagel, this radical program promises to be as much physical as it is musical.

With over two dozen premieres performed by an ever-committed group of musicians who gladly take on anything, we look forward to leading you through another exhilarating year of innovative new music in 2010.

2009 in review

"The creative interpretation of these works conveyed a sense of daring that seemed to be relished by Ensemble Offspring. This was a beautifully curated concert; the material well balanced and standard chamber music conventions interrogated." Simon Charles in relation to Ensemble Offspring's performance of Stockhausen's Tierkreis in Real Time Aug-Sep, 2009

Our 2009 flyer promised an adventurous year in which the spirit of the late Stockhausen would live on. As we close the curtain on our 2009 season we believe we've delivered. With performances of Stockhausen's Kontakte in Brisbane, Perth, Sydney and Newcastle, we were thrilled to revive this 20th century classic absent from Australian programs since the early 70s. Further Stockhausen included our premiere version of Tierkreis as part of Smart Light Sydney. Described in review as "colourful" and "absorbing" we hope to reperform our peculiar realization of the work in the near future.

Audiences were captivated by the sumptuous sound worlds of French Spectralists Grisey and Murail in our Thirteen Colours program presented in Melbourne and Sydney. The latter was nominated for best chamber performance in the ABC Limelight Awards and described in the Sydney Morning Herald as displaying "considerable intellectual and musical subtlety". We greatly look forward to touring Thirteen Colours in 2010 with performances in Canberra and Adelaide.

To add to this we presented Reich's huge Tehillim in Melbourne, we were ensemble-in-residence at the Totally Huge New Music Festival (Perth) and UWS's Creative Explosion in the West and we had a ball on our Armidale roadtrip where we introduced the locals to Cage, Glass and Zorn.

Origin Cycle with Jane Sheldon

'...bringing the music to points of staggering beauty... What a tone she has.' - Sydney Morning Herald, 2006

Ensemble Offspring is presently in the midst of rehearsals for our last project of the year, the Origin Cycle. It will be the first time that EO has teamed up with the remarkable Australian soprano, Jane Sheldon, for whom this Song Cycle was written.

In celebration of the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin's Origin of Species, fragments of this remarkable text have been set to music by Australian composers: Conyngham, Gyger, Kats-Chernin, Neal, Page, Stanhope, Vines, and Walker. The passages of text and their unique musical responses encompass the entire work and capture Darwin's revolutionary insights into the very nature of life on earth.

This tapestry of musical treasures will be performed in the nation's capital at the Australian National University followed by a performance under the huge whale in the foyer of the Australian Museum in Sydney.

CANBERRA PERFORMANCE:

Friday November 13th, 2009 @ 7:00pm

Big Band Room, School of Music, ANU

Free!

SYDNEY PERFORMANCE:

Thursday November 19th, 2009 @ 7:00pm

Australian Museum Foyer, William St entry

Tix: $20/$12

>> Book tickets

November News 2009

OFFSPRING'S OFFSPRING

We are thrilled to welcome Walter Couchman, the latest addition to the Ensemble Offspring family. Diana Springford, the ensemble's clarinetist, had to miss out on some recent exciting tours, but it was all worth it when Walter entered the world last month. We wish them all good health, happiness and as much sleep as possible.

LIMLIGHT NOMINATION

We were delighted to find out that Ensemble Offspring had been nominated for a Limelight Award in the category of Best Chamber Music Performance for our Thirteen Colours program presented at the Sydney Conservatorium in May. We were the only new music ensemble to be included in the awards. The awards will be announced in early December.

CREATIVE EXPLOSION

In October Ensemble Offspring exploded in the west - namely at the University of Western Sydney. Composer Bruce Crossman made us feel at home at UWS where we recorded new works by the UWS staff, mentored composition and performance students and presented two concerts. The gala concert of staff works was a real highlight of the event with a packed crowd and a huge variety of new music.

Ensemble Offspring in 2009

2009 will be an adventurous year for Ensemble Offspring. The spirit of the legendary Karlheinz Stockhausen lives on in this year's program with an innovative series of events that span electronica to spectral music and flexible forms to multimedia performances. We look forward to engaging, entertaining and challenging the way you think about music in 2009. Highlights include:

Tehillim - Ensemble Offspring and Halcyon join forces to present Steve Reich's Tehillim - an ecstatic vibrant work celebrating the biblical psalms.

Kontakte - The godfather of electronic music, Karlheinz Stockhausen, meets the latest in electronica with guest sound-artist Pimmon.

Thirteen Colours - A delicate immersion of the senses based on light and sound spectra featuring rarely heard works by Gérard Grisey, Tristan Murial and John Luther Adams.

Zodiac - Twelve sublime melodies representing the zodiac signs are the basis for a striking staged version of Stockhausen's Tierkreis.

Open Music - An eclectic selection of 20th century classics designed to elicit a multitude of interpretations including works by Philip Glass, John Zorn and John Cage.

Creative Explosion in the West at UWS - The rich multiculturalism of Western Sydney inspires a unique project involving improvisation, electronica and Asian instruments.

For the latest information go to our current events

A Workout for the Ears

Ensemble Offspring promises you a night to remember with their last show of the year, To The Max. From whispered clarinet tones to over-amplified drones, Ensemble Offspring will test your hearing with a selection of works at opposite ends of the decibel spectrum on Wednesday 10th December at 7pm.

As you arrive you will be ushered in small groups into the depths of the Carriageworks to experience simultaneous intimate performances. The first 50 people to book tickets will also find themselves led to a ‘secret' performance in one of the dressing rooms. Beauty Boxes by Melbourne artist Rosemary Joy features delightful handcrafted boxes of miniature percussion that have been created especially with Ensemble Offspring percussionists Claire Edwardes and Bree Van Reyk, in mind. These up close and personal performances are complimented by Morton Feldman's delicate classic King of Denmark where percussion instruments are caressed delicately with the hands and fingers. The pianissimo theme will continue with Helmut Lachenmann's famous reinvention of the clarinet in Dal Niente (Out of Nothing), whilst in John Cage's Cheap Imitation you will hear the violinist performing with slack bow-hair.
 
For the second half of To the Max, expect the volume to be cranked up. Michael Smetanin will warm the stage with his new work Swell before Louis Andriessen's raucous Workers Union, a blustering rant for any group of loud sounding instruments. The night will conclude with Phill Niblock's droning instrumental tones bursting from all angles and accompanied by multiple projected images of The Movement of People Working. You are free to move around the giant Bay 20 performance space to gain your own perspective on this full-on audio-visual spectacle.

You will also experience a new exhibition by artist Jack Randell. Fish Dog Wood presents a hybrid intersection of video, photography, painting and drawing, which bring multiple ways of looking onto a single plane. Download exhibition media kit>

To the Max event details>

Melbourne Boys Win Sibelius Composer Awards

Melbourne lads stole the limelight in the national Sibelius Composer Awards at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music on Sunday 26th October, which drew over 100 entrants from across Australia. Jackson Sweeney, just 16 years of age took out the Secondary Schools award for his dark and dramatic work Delusional Mind and Jesse McVeity (19) won the Tertiary section for his intriguing use of texture and momentum in Luminous Patterns. The winners were handpicked by some of Australia's most esteemed composers - Katy Abbott, Damian Barbeler, Anne Boyd, Paul Grabowsky, Matthew Hindson, Andrea Keller, Graeme Koehne, James Morrison and Ensemble Offspring.

Jesse and Jackson, together with the other finalists Liam Kemp (who took out the 'Audience Choice' award for his work Control), Liane Papantoniou (SynchronCity) and Chie Tsang Lee (Autumn's Rain) witnessed the world premiere of their works by Ensemble Offspring at the Sydney Conservatorium and recorded for delayed broadcast by ABC Classic FM. For Jackson it was the first time he'd had any of his compositions performed by a professional ensemble on a professional stage. The Melbourne winners took home up to $2,000 cash alongside an entire home studio - including professional audio editing software, mics, top-of-the-range speakers and the latest version of Sibelius music notation software to the value of $10,000.

The Sibelius Awards also saw the world premiere of the work of the inaugural winner of the Sibelius Emerging Composer Commission, Peter McNamara. Peter McNamara has garnered much local and international attention for his composition Landscape of Diffracted Colours, which was performed at the 2007 Asia Pacific Festival in Wellington, New Zealand and also by the world famous Ensemble Modern in Europe.

Stepping Stones education resource

Stepping Stones is a new education resource for senior secondary and tertiary music students developed by Ensemble Offspring and Sibelius and published by the Australian Music Centre. The kit is comprised of in-class and take-home activities including listening, performing, composing and analysis.

The first section is an investigation of a recent work, Same Steps, by the Australian composer Damien Ricketson. The analysis focuses on the concept of the open-form in contemporary classical composition and introduces students to many new musical devices such as unconventional musical notation and the use of microtones. Practical activities and further listening complement the analysis.

The second section investigates the works of the four student finalists from the 2007 Sibelius Composer Competition. A series of related composition activities (provided on CD ROM) contain especially designed Sibelius tasks for students to use as a springboard for compositional creativity and to familiarise themselves with notation software. The World of Sibelius Demo Version is included in the kit.

Stepping Stones is available for purchase from the Australian Music Centre (ph. 1300 651 834). Retail price: $85 / AMC member price $76.50

Special package offer 

Secondary school teachers who purchase Stepping Stones can send their students to:

- ATTEND a FREE open rehearsal with Ensemble Offspring: 1pm to 5pm Saturday 25th October at MLC School, Rowley Street, Burwood

- RECEIVE $10 DISCOUNT TICKET PRICE to the Awards Concert at 3pm Sunday 26th October at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Macquarie Street, Sydney. (Normal price $35/$20). 

After you purchase the kit from the Australian Music Centre your details will be passed to Ensemble Offspring for discount ticketing.

For further information on Stepping Stones, contact the Australian Music Centre: info@amcoz.com.au. For further information on how to enter the 2008 Sibelius Composer Awards contact Sibelius: infoAU@sibelius.com. For further information on the open rehearsal at MLC Burwood (25th October) and the 2008 Awards Concert at the Sydney Conservatorium (26th October), contact Ensemble Offspring directly.

Sibelius Composer Awards 2008

Sibelius and Ensemble Offspring are excited to announce the Sibelius Composer Awards for 2008. The awards are a national competition for secondary and tertiary students with a new category for emerging composers.

The Sibelius Student Composer Awards 2007 were a huge success and attracted over 200 entries from secondary and tertiary students throughout Australia. The superb works submitted by 2 winners and 2 runners-up and a very high standard of entries overall are testimony to a wealth of young musical talent in Australia.

The finalists in this year's competition will receive prizes of cash, opportunities and music technology products from leading Avid Audio brands Sibelius, Digidesign and M-Audio. The finalists will also receive a public performance by Ensemble Offspring which will be broadcast nationally by ABC Classic FM.

Secondary and Tertiary applicants are to write an original work scored for 3-5 instruments from the following:

- Bb clarinet and/or bass clarinet (one performer)
- Violin
- Cello
- Guitar (acoustic or electric)
- Percussion (Tuned percussion: marimba (5 octave), crotales (2 octaves), vibraphone, glockenspiel. Un-tuned percussion:  drums (not kit), cymbals, woodblocks etc. This noted, percussion should be kept to a minimum and easily playable by 1 performer. Bigger and more unusual instruments such as tubular bells, large pitched gongs and timpani are NOT to be included.)

Please visit the Sibelius website for the full details: http://www.sibelius.com/AusComposerAwards 

Competition correspondence should be directed to: infoAU@sibelius.com 

Ensemble Offspring in 2008

Change the way you think about music

Sydney's pioneers of new and innovative music, Ensemble Offspring, bring you another year of striking musical experiences. With a reputation for unique events and refined performances, Ensemble Offspring has established itself as one of Australia's leading voices for fresh forms of classical music. In 2008 Ensemble Offspring promises to stimulate your curiosity with an engaging series of events that will change the way you think about music.

In 2008 Ensemble Offspring will present the following projects:

A Line Has Two

The critically acclaimed sonic-literary spectacle by composer Damien Ricketson and renowned poet Christopher Wallace-Crabbe returns to the stage alongside a new prelude that revives a forgotten musical language In God's Esperanto.

Event dates:
13th May Canberra International Music Festival
17th May Bangarra Dance Theatre, Sydney
view more >

Waiting To Turn Into Puzzles

A cinematic experience with live music combining Louise Curham's hand-processed super8 films with David Young's beautiful microscopic musical vocabulary.

Event dates:
25th June, Chauvel Cinema, Sydney
26th June Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne
view more >

Sibelius Young Composer Awards

A celebration of the newest of new music with a nationwide competition for composers of secondary and tertiary institutions. Hear what lies around the corner for Australian music.

Event date:
26th October Sydney Conservatorium
view more >

To the Max

Six works explore opposite ends of the decibel spectrum. From whispered clarinet tones to over-amplified drones, this performance promises to test the thresholds of hearing.

Event date:
10th December Carriageworks
view more >